Stairs

We got Louie straight from the kennel in Florida so one issue we were ready to deal with was teaching him how to climb the stairs. His first day with us was a challenge, everything was new and the stairs were too much for him so husband carried him up and down the stairs. The following day, with Hanna's help, he mastered (and conquered!)the stairs. We laid down treats on a few steps. Hanna was hovering around (as if telling/showing Louie, this is how it's done) and I was pushing/lifting him from behind (as taught by husband). It helped that our stairs are carpeted (some greys freak out when walking on hardwood floors).

Anyway, I just remembered this while reading this grey manual (the link was from our greyhound e-group):

http://www.bayareagreyhounds.org/pdf/greyhoundcaremanual.pdf

Cats & UTI

Our dear friends' cat just had urinary tract surgery. I didn't get the exact details (the cat's urethra was shortened, he couldn't pee well) anyway, the vet apparently was attributing this to the ash content of the cat food. So I "googled" ash content in cat food:

http://cat-care.suite101.com/article.cfm/ash_content_in_cat_

And here's an article about how to encourage cats to drink more:

http://cat-care.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_get_your_cat_to_drink_more_water

Thankfully, our 2 senior cats (12sh) seem to have healthy urinary tracts (I need to change litterbox every 2 days or so, aside from daily scooping). I have their eating area in the basement so Hanna won't be tempted to feast on the cats' kibbles and leftover canned food. I can't really monitor their "drinking habits" with this set-up though. When we got the pups, the cats started drinking from the dogs' waterbowls. I now know that both cats, based on watching them, love their water, esp. if it's fresh (have to change it twice a day)and in the clean aluminum bowls. Sometimes, Ringo will drink and come up to us with his water beard....

Good to Know (medical) Facts About Greys

Husband found this greyhound rescue group's website

http://www.goinghomegreyhounds.org/

At the bottom of their homepage is an article /handout about medical idiosyncracies in greys. It is a comprehensive listing & explanation of the common (& actually, must know medical facts) health issues among greys. It would have saved us grief when Louie (for a brief period of time) had some incontinence and had to be on some drug that made him lose appetite and when Hanna had bilateral front paw corns.

Here's the link,

http://www.greyhoundadoptionofoh.org/Greyhound_Health_Packet_08.pdf

Health Benefits of Having Pets

Husband & I once had to answer a question from a neighbor, "You feed and take care of the dog but your grey won't fetch slippers or play ball, so what does the dog do for you?"

Having pets have proven health & emotional benefits. The following is from the CDC website:

Most households in the United States have at least one pet. Why do people have pets? There are many reasons. Some of the health benefits of pets are listed below.

Pets can decrease your:

Blood pressure
Cholesterol levels
Triglyceride levels
Feelings of loneliness

Pets can increase your:

Opportunities for exercise and outdoor activities
Opportunities for socialization

_________

When husband & I adopted 2 retired greyhounds, we didn't expect them to fetch our slippers/newspaper, play ball with us for hours, be mean to trespassers, etc.yada, yada...Based on our good experience with our 2 adopted cats, pet ownership is just so much more than your pets being able to do tricks for you (Sebastian has learned how to roll over, though and Louie can now sit, ;). But before we got our 2 dogs, I barely knew our neighbors, now, we know almost everyone in our block. Whenever husband has a bad day at work, the pups & cats will be all over him when he comes home, whether he likes the loving or not, it will be given to him in the form of licks, headbutts, purrs and furballs on his lap. When I am walking with our pups, people not familiar with the greyhound breed tend to avoid us (they don't know, our pups will just lick them a lot). We get more walking exercise and Vitamin D (if the sun ever shows up here in upstate NY). I can go on and on about the benefits, there's just too many to enumerate.

Closing Greyhound Racetracks

There will be tons of greyhounds that will be available for adoption when these racetracks close. Hanna raced at Dairyland (in Kenosha, Wisconsin) and won one race (the difference between a winner and a non-winner is just a hundredths of a second or a full second). We are glad though that she retired early (because of a leg injury). Louie is from Florida and raced three times then retired. He was skin and bones when we got him straight from the track. We're glad that he was retired early too, otherwise, we won't have such good pups.

Greyhounds are very smart, very clean, very affectionate and quiet dogs. If we have the resources, we will open our home to more pups so they too, can have a happy and loving family.

http://bhsdogblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/ma-greyhound-tracks-closing/

http://www.dairylandgreyhoundpark.com/adoption.asp

Great disposable boots

I just reordered these PAWZ rubber (biodegradable & disposable) booties for our greys. I got large for Hanna & extra large for Louie. Whenever they have a cut or wound within the paw area, these booties are very helpful in keeping the wounds clean & dry. They look like balloons but they are made of thicker rubber and what's really amazing is they stay on. Yes, they will get punctured after several uses but I still think they are worth the price. If I remember right, I got the large ones for around $14 (12 booties in a box) and the extra large at around $16 (12 booties in a box). They are good to have at hand esp. for nursing paw wounds.

Thin-skinned

With their long legs and sleek built, greyhounds are very graceful and regal-looking . They are really awesome to watch when they are running in an enclosed area. I am just amazed at the speed and the power...

But imagine a tripping 75 lb slightly gangly, highly excitable and clumsy grey with 4 long legs (that seem to have a mind of their own)--can be funny if the involved grey didn't get hurt and catastrophic if some sharp object or body part is involved--because greys have very thin skin and almost no body fat. We brought the pups with us 2 Sundays ago to visit family. As hubby and I left the pups with their grandps to meet up with our Pop, we got a phone call informing us that Louie got out to greet our newly arrived relatives, skidded the icy pavement that turned into a gravel path and sustained more than 4 cuts in his extremities. Good news was, we weren't there to witness all these, so I avoided a major freak out. Another good news: Louie, despite being off-leash and outside the house, DID NOT escape at all(greys are notorious for fleeing, despite all established bonds, I think it is the sight hound in them). Bad news was his deepest wound was in his front paw, dime-sized and there's even that glistening tell-tale sign of a digit's tendon. The dilema is to have it sutured or not. I learned from Hanna's surgery (Fall 09)that sutures in greys don't last long (they rip up the skin and therefore defeats the purpose of having sutures anyway). So for the past week we have been nursing Louie's wounds and I must say, we are doing well. There is granulation tissue growing and almost closing the wound and no sign of infection at all. What we did was, nightly cleaning with povidone-iodine (Louie can't stand hydrogen peroxide) then topical antibiotic then covered with gauze and vetwrap. Then Louie is muzzled (works better than the lampshade collar) to prevent him from licking his wound. Can't sing enough praises for our plastic muzzle, vetwrap and topical antibiotic. Oh, and we kept his wound dry by wearing a bootie on one and a rubber disposable bootie (Pawz) on the other when we walk outside.



This is a picture of Louie's wound after 3 1/2 weeks of daily wound care.